Is 3D Animation Right For Me?

Very often when researching jobs, the question most people ask is, am I right for 3D animation? It’s an important question to ask, but people often fail to ask the converse, which is just as important: is 3D animation right for me? You may harbor ambitions to animate a breakthrough 3D movie such as Toy Story or Frozen, but, 3D animation is one of those fields that are 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. Are you up for the perspiration part, or, perhaps more precisely, are you up for the daily realities of being a 3D animator, the painstaking detail-oriented work day after day just to come up with the briefest of sequences? Or starting out by working on crowd animation and elementary things like walk cycles? And, of course, are you willing to tolerate the lengthy period it may take you to find your first job?

What is a 3D Animator?

A 3D animator is an illusionist who creates lifeless drawings that are seemingly imbued, not only with life, but also with the ability to inhabit a world with three-dimensional depth. Over the years, animators have striven to give 2D animation a sense of depth. One of the most successful experiments in this field was the multiplane camera invented by Ub Iwerks for Disney. As early as 1942, it was used to conjure up the gorgeous opening sequence of Bambi, but the 3D look to which moviegoers have become accustomed today is of far newer vintage. It really only began with Pixar’s experiments with computer animation that produced the first 3D animated feature, Toy Story.

Making images that created the illusion of a third dimension dates back to the 19th century, when stereoscopic viewers made it possible to view static images that appeared to possess depth. The Viewmaster of the 1960s was a later iteration of the stereoscopic viewer; it’s enjoying a bit of a renaissance as a curiosity in the 21st century. This stereoscopic technology was taken up by motion pictures as early as 1922, when The Power of Love was released and necessitated the wearing of red and green anaglyph glasses to create the illusion of depth. The anaglyph glasses have since been replaced by the clear polarized lenses you’re given to view 3D movies in cinemas and on theme park rides today.

Filmmakers have been playing around with 3D technology for over a century, and it’s caught on a few times (as in the 1950s), only to fade from popularity and be dismissed as a gimmick. There can be little question that the development of 3D animation has led the 21st century to embrace the latest 3D techniques, not only with the likes of Toy Story and Pixar’s other groundbreaking films, but also with live-action films such as Avatar or the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland, the visual fantasy of which was greatly increased by the use of 3D technology.

Although there’s been a drop off in live-action 3D movies since the 2010s, the technology is still going strong in the world of animation. Indeed, 3D animation has supplanted 2D techniques, which are now reserved mostly for lower budget television productions. 3D animation also lies at the core of video game design.

Into this world steps the 3D animator, or, rather, an entire army of 3D animators, as the process of creating this type of animation on the computer is painstaking in the extreme, far more so than the already painstaking process of hand-drawn 2D animation. The state of the art is such that 3D animators today can create photorealistic images that no longer look like drawings. However, a phenomenon known as the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis maintains that humans find animation that looks too close to real life to be unnerving or creepy. Thus the verisimilitude of which 3D images are capable is generally tempered using devices such as bigger-than-natural eyes so as not to disturb the viewer.

Because of the intricate nature of the work—you need at least 24 images per second to give 3D animation its illusion of life—3D animators concentrate on one aspect and one aspect alone of their work. To choose one example, animating human hair (not only Rapunzel’s in Tangled) is a discipline unto itself. Among the other roles taken by 3D animators are:

• Rigger (those who create the rigging, something like the skeleton of a character to be animated),
• Modeler (those who put the flesh, as it were, on the rigging),
• Key frame animator (analogous to the animators who did the principal drawings in the pencil-and-paper days),
• Background artist,
• Clothing animator (texture artist),
• Lighting artist,
• Clean-up artist,
• Digital ink and paint artist,
• Rendering artist, and
• Compositing artist.

That list isn’t exhaustive. There are many other roles and specialties, which explains why the credits for Disney movies go on forever. (Those for Toy Story 3 clock in at over six minutes.) 3D animation is still an experimental field, with many discoveries still to be made. To choose one example, no one knows how AI will affect the animation industry. There will probably always be a need for human animators to give soul to their creations, but artificial intelligence is sure to play a role in the animation process, the rule book for which remains under construction.

Why Become a 3D Animator?

The reasons for becoming a 3D animator range from the fact that it’s a fascinating joining of technology and art to the far homelier reality that it’s where the future of animation lies. Using Disney as a barometer for trends in animated features, the last time it produced a movie that was done in 2D was 2009’s The Princess and the Frog, and the movie’s not being in 3D is frequently cited as one reason for its failure at the box office. Thus, the question can be restated: why become an animator at all? Among the reasons that might be leading you in that direction are that

• You’re an artist and want to make a living making art,
• You’re fascinated by the process of animation and the giving the illusion of life to your drawings,
• You’re interested in a growth industry that pays well,
• You want to have a creative outlet in your work,
• You like telling stories, and
• Your initial interest was in 2D animation and you’ve realized which way the wind is blowing.

In any event, your profile is going to be that of a creative type who knows how to use technology as a tool for artistic creation. That lies at the heart of the 3D animation process, and, if it describes you, you’ll be a good fit for the field.

Patience

Although you might not expect patience to be such a big factor in so fast-paced a career as 3D animation, the fact of the matter is that you need a lot of fast-moving parts to come up with your desired result. Creating animation with a computer is a meticulous process, and not a speedy one. You can probably design 2D animation with your pencil and an animation table far more quickly than an equivalent amount of 3D work, even though, in 3D, the computers handle in-betweening. You have to work long and hard to create the briefest of sequences, and, even there, you’re going to have to have the patience to wait to see what your work looks like when it’s rendered.

Another aspect of a 3D animation that requires patience is the time it may well take you to find a first job. Competition is fierce, and qualified candidates abound. That doesn’t mean you’ll never find a job, but it does mean that you’ll have to plug away at finding one, especially if you’re caught in the experience paradox (you need experience to get hired; you need to get hired to get experience.) The best advice here is to work at perfecting your showreel by putting together a minute and a half of animation that will knock the viewer’s socks off. Your demo reel and not your resume is going to get you hired in this field, so putting a lot of time and effort into it will be the best possible investment in your future as a 3D animator.

Creativity on Demand

Creative jobs differ from the circumstances in which creative people naturally thrive. There simply are days when the creative juices won’t flow, and you were no doubt taught that the way to get around writer’s (or animator’s) block is to step away from the desk and let your brain recharge. Don’t push too hard or the ideas will never come is the received wisdom for anyone seeking to create anything.

That’s all very well and good, but it also only applies to situations where there aren’t deadlines and other people dependent upon you doing your share of the work. You can’t keep telling your boss that you don’t feel inspired if you expect to hold onto your position. You, therefore, have to learn how to be creative on demand and have a series of tricks up your sleeve to get you past creator’s block when it strikes. 

Working on a Team

If most of your experience creating 3D animation is working on your own on small projects, you’re in for a surprise when you arrive at your first job, and you’re assigned to animate a few facial expressions on the crowd in the background that most viewers will never notice. While this work isn’t exactly menial, it is certainly of less importance than animating the key characters in a scene. Still, someone has to do it, and it often falls to junior animators.

As a professional animator, you’re going to have to be able to work on a team with more senior animators with more say about the final product than you do. There’s a lot of collaboration that goes into 3D animation, so you should be prepared to work with others productively and smoothly. This isn’t just teamwork in the sense of the soft skill people need more and more in the business world today: it’s full-out creative collaboration, complete with praise and criticism of your work. If you can’t be a cog in a larger machine, you’re going to have difficulty working in 3D animation.

Ongoing Education

Professional development (as it’s called in the business world) isn’t just a nicety in the animation world. You’re going to be learning new things constantly, both to keep pace with updates to and new versions of software with which you’re familiar, and to add unfamiliar software to your professional toolkit. Programs such as Blender and Maya often come under the latter heading. This need to continue learning your craft applies to all 3D animators, not just those starting out. Because the trade is so technology-heavy and because technology keeps developing, the field is in constant flux.

There are multiple ways of learning these ever-changing skills. Mostly, you’ll learn them on the job from superiors, or from colleagues who are stuck trying to figure out some new feature Autocad built into Maya that no one understands. You may also be sent to professional development classes when there’s a whole new program to learn. You’ll have to be open to all these possibilities, and, above all, not get too set in your ways, as, in 3D animation, those ways are constantly evolving.

Job Uncertainty

A major shortcoming of a 3D animation career is that you’re very often going to be in the unsettling situation of not knowing whence your next job will come. The days of getting a position at Disney and staying with the company until they gave you a gold Mickey Mouse watch for your extended service are a thing of the past. Yes, there are big studios that will move you from project to project as one is completed, but a lot of animators get hired for one project and then are left to move on. The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the number of freelancing animators and special effects artists at 59%.

This means you’re going to have to get used to looking constantly for work, often once a year, sometimes even more frequently than that. This comes with the territory, and you’d do well to be equipped with the kind of risk tolerance it requires. Freelancing has its considerable advantages as well: you get a great deal of freedom in exchange for that steady weekly paycheck you’re not going to get. You get to choose when, on what and with whom you work, and these are things that many animators wouldn’t trade away, not even for that regular paycheck. 

Do I Need a Degree to Become a 3D Animator?

There can be no question that the received wisdom is that a bachelor’s degree in animation or a closely related discipline is an essential stepping stone to a career as a 3D animator. Four years is a good amount of time to learn the tools of the trade and work up an impressive showreel. A four-year degree is also what most HR officers expect when they glance fleetingly at your resume.

That said, college isn’t necessarily for everyone for reasons that range from the personal to the pecuniary. A four-year degree costs a fortune today, and getting one at all costs may not be the stepping stone to an animation career you think it’s going to be. It’s far from being a magic pathway with guaranteed employment at the other end. People have made it into the animation game with associate’s degrees and even just a high school diploma: indeed, according to one set of figures from Zippia, only 72% of employed 3D animators have four-year degrees.

If you don’t have that bachelor’s degree, your chances of getting hired will be considerably improved by attending a certificate program at a school that specializes in equipping people with the kinds of tech skills they need to make it on the job market. These programs last months rather than the years it takes to get a college degree, and are priced far more reasonably, too. They focus entirely on the in-demand skill sets that any employed 3D animator needs to have and have you properly prepared to pound the proverbial pavement when you’re done with your program. This may not be the most traditional route to an animation career, but it has proven itself to be a very real possibility, especially if you have a terrific demo reel that will make the contents of your resume all but moot.

Learn the Skills to Become a 3D Animator at Noble Desktop

If you lack the time, funds or inclination to pursue a four-year degree in animation, you can always consider a certificate program that will teach you what you need to know to break into the 3D animator job market. One such program is Noble Desktop’s Motion Graphics Certificate. It will teach you how to use Adobe After Effects as a means of creating motion graphics along with Cinema 4D Lite, which, despite the name, is a 3D modeling program that will allow you to create sophisticated 3D animations.

Alternatively, Noble offers a longer Video Editing & Motion Graphics Certificate program that adds modules on Adobe Premiere Pro and Audition to the motion graphics curriculum. The course will make you a competent video editor as well as an animator. The extra skills may well pay off, especially if you end up working on a small team that needs someone who can edit.

These Noble Desktop classes come complete with sessions with expert mentors who’ve actually worked as animators; these sessions can be used for any purpose you choose, including preparing your showreel. Both certificate programs include time to work on it as well. You’ll receive a free retake option (valid for up to one year) and access to recordings of every classroom session you attend. Finally, payment plans are available, some at 0% interest.